or you can use this startup: https://thepostage.com
Cheat sheet for if I'm gone
141–150 of 194 posts
Re: Cheat sheet for if I'm gone
#142Check out Get Your Shit Together [0]. It was started by a woman who lost her husband in an accident, suddenly becoming a widow and single mom to two young children. She has abridged [1] and long checklists [2] that everyone should complete. Most of us probably don't even think about these things: - will - power of attorney (in varying forms) - what happens to pets - what happens to kids - money - burial/funeral wishe…
Any competent estate attorney will do this for you.
Re: Cheat sheet for if I'm gone
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
Better just not to encrypt anything like that. If you have a house, which has windows, your locks do not provide security against someone smashing open the window. Key cutting schemes are a bit like this - no key offers security, only one of several access routes. Having multiple access routes may be desirable and simultaneously a concern - a fireman smashing through your window to save your life is desirable, a burg…
> A key cutting scheme may be useful in the case of mutli tenancy No. Cutting a key in half doesn't halve its security, but it reduces it exponentially. 256 bits = 2^256 possibilities for bruteforcing 255 bits = 2^255 possibilities for bruteforcing, or half 128 bits = 2^128 possibilities, or 1/(2^128) the security
1. Key is 256 bits K
2. Half of K is a random 256 bit X
3. Other half is (K xor X), still 256 bit
Having half of key is still 256 bit bruteforcing.
Re: Cheat sheet for if I'm gone
#144Keeping your money in the bank means the executor of your will can usually get it through a straightforward process. Keeping your money in crypto means that, by default, it dies with you, unless you take special effort to ensure otherwise, and are willing to trust a solution you can't possibly debug because you'll be dead.
Depending on how much you trust your government, bank, and judicial system, inability for them to access your money after your death is a feature, not a bug, because it means they also can't easily block or steal it during your life.
As people in China who have had their bank accounts frozen for months, and now their health status flagged red when they were planning to protest, are finding out, https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/15/china/china-zhengzhou-bank-fr...
Minorities in America have historically faced similar challenges of unfair treatment under the justice system.
Re: Cheat sheet for if I'm gone
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
A similar situation can arise under duress. On the contrary to what people claim online, in dangerous places you want to cooperate with criminals, not get in between them and your stuff. Under that type of stress it's very easy to forget passwords which might make criminals believe you're not cooperating. Having some things writen down (probably not all?) has come in handy for me personally.
It sounds like an interesting (the horrifying kind of interesting) story looms behind this post... But besides this, yeah, this may also be a valid case for some simple recovery strategy.
yeah, long story short, I was unfortunately kidnapped in Caracas 13 years ago. Thankfully everything turned out "fine", a ransom was paid and I was released.
But, in the middle of the ordeal and panic I had to give them access to my car which had a security code to be able to turn the engine on. My family had prepared for this (the reality of the city at the time) so we had the code writen down somewhere in the car. I just gave them the piece of paper to avoid errors or hesitation as I was quite nervous, I didn't want ANY mistakes :/
Re: Cheat sheet for if I'm gone
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
That just circumvents the other part of the feature; the timeout. It also means you have to trust that individual's security.
Can't it be handled e.g by the spouse having "half" the key, bitwarden the other "half", which they only gives out after the timeout. Ok, bitwarden and your "trusted one" can collude to open it before, but they must both be in on it.
The link to the feature provided here explains how it works. Your Bitwarden client has a master key that opens your vault. This is your own private key. Bitwarden the server doesn't have a copy of it. If you choose to designate a trusted successor in the case of your incapacitation, you send a request to that person. If they accept the request, Bitwarden the client will generate a public/private key pair for them. They keep the private key in their client. Bitwarden the server gets a copy of their public key and sends it to you. Now your Bitwarden client encrypts your private key with their public key and Bitwarden the server gets a copy of that. In the event of your incapacitation, they send a request to get a copy of that encrypted key. After the timeout period, Bitwarden the server will send your encrypted master key to them. Then their copy of Bitwarden the client, which has their private key, can decrypt it, and now they have a copy of your private key as well.
At no point does Bitwarden the server have a copy of anyone's private key. And no splitting of keys is necessary. This is just the normal way asymmetric encryption works.
This, of course, all breaks down if you don't trust Bitwarden the company, since they provide you the client. As far as I understand, US law enforcement doesn't have the legal ability to force a company to modify their own software to make it malicious (as opposed to doing something much simpler like forcing them to turn on IP logging on a VPN server). But if your threat model includes the possibility of US covert intelligence services MITM-ing Bitwarden the company and sending you their own malicious client, then yeah, keep your secrets in a physical vault guarded by people willing to die in a shootout with the FBI before betraying you. Make sure they'll answer to your successor if you die.
Re: Cheat sheet for if I'm gone
#147Check out Get Your Shit Together [0]. It was started by a woman who lost her husband in an accident, suddenly becoming a widow and single mom to two young children. She has abridged [1] and long checklists [2] that everyone should complete. Most of us probably don't even think about these things: - will - power of attorney (in varying forms) - what happens to pets - what happens to kids - money - burial/funeral wishe…
Any competent estate attorney will do this for you.
Indeed, mine covered all this when I last updated my will.
Re: Cheat sheet for if I'm gone
#148The big problem with this that I don't have a good answer to... we've been told to use a password manager and have it secured with a long passphrase... and now we write down the username/passphrase on a piece of paper or somewhere else easily accessible - how to adequately secure that? Maybe encrypt the passphrase under an m of n scheme and distribute to family & friends that you can trust to not collaborate unless y…
What about keeping the passphrase in a safe deposit box in a bank? In the best case, you have a trusted person with whom you can share access to the box. Otherwise your executor or a court could gain access, but at least the info wouldn't disappear.
Re: Cheat sheet for if I'm gone
#149A friend of a relative had their house burglarized over a weekend. The burglars took their time and took apart everything, cutting all pictures out of their frames, etc. If a written password existed, they would have found it. The "give it to an attorney" plan would also worry me, unless I knew exactly who/what/when/where/why/how access was controlled and GUARANTEED (after all, an attorney's system could break down a…
What would the purpose of cutting pictures out of frames be?
Re: Cheat sheet for if I'm gone
#150This is great. My father had a file we all knew about called "When I Die" (yes he had morbid sense of humour) with instructions about things like belongings assets, funeral etc. Writing this out for us took so much weight off our shoulders knowing that we were able to deal in an organised fashion with things according to his wishes.
Another commenter talked about lasting PoA and they are good to have too in case of incapacitation. But it should also be accompanied with guidelines so people know how to give care for both the indisposed and those most immediately affected.
All of this boils down to this being a document that shows your survivors how much you love them by dealing with this while you can.